A simple jar of pickled beans and the right question can unleash your inner Cook of Anarchy!

From Theresa:

We've had this jar of homemade pickled beans sitting on the counter for a while. Bear got them from a friend, who likes to snack on them. They were too spicy for our taste buds, though. It looked like they had garlic and hot pepper flakes floating in the vinegar. I suggested I could take them to work to see if anyone there would like them.

I was putting the jar in my work bag when Bear asked, "What if this was all the food we would be able to get for the Winter? What would we do with the pickled beans then?"

A great question. Obviously, we wouldn't just give them away. Bear suggested we could trade them for some other food. I said maybe if we put the beans with bread & butter, that would cut down the spiciness enough that we could eat them... and then we were off.

I decided we could chop them up and put them in my homemade coleslaw, in place of the pickle relish I usually add. I had to use about nine beans before we could taste the flavor. It was yummy.

.Bear, who is famous (at least with me) for his cheese sandwiches, realized that everything goes good with melted cheese, so added them to a perfectly toasted mozzarella and pickled bean sandwich.(Bear here... It's always perfect when no one is watching. Why couldn't I do this in the Grilled Cheese Championship?) The spicy beans paired well with the plain cheese to give the sandwich a little kick.

Then we took the coleslaw and added it with some chunks of smoked salmon to a couple wraps. Unfortunately, I tried to fill them way too full, so Bear wasn't able to use his professional burrito wrapping skills- the wraps mostly fell apart, but they were still edible.

So that is how we figured out how to not waste food. A little creative cooking made use of a flavor that we didn't think we liked, but found out we did. It's a good skill to cultivate, because some day we might not be able to go to the store and simply buy different food. And I like not being part of that statistic that says Americans throw away 40% of their food.